Saturday, October 11, 2008

Some folks may have noticed that Possummomma's blog has been inaccessible for some days. I've been in touch with her via email, and can assure everyone that this is nothing to do with her or the family being in any kind of imminent physical danger. Yes, there is a situation in play involving some vile scumbag who threatened the lives of her kids, necessitating a panicked return from a camping trip that, as children, they should have had the right to enjoy without interference from theistic madness. But that fellow is currently facing criminal charges, the law is on it, and so that situation can be considered under control.

What has been going on involves a pattern of online harassment she's been having to deal with, that is literally too bizarre to be described. Sorry not to be more specific than that, but I figure if she ever wants to come back online and spill the details (and she hasn't wanted to so far, mainly so as not to seem as if she's giving the people responsible any legitimacy, which I understand), that's up to her. But she did want me to let everyone know that they are all, at the very least, safe.

I don't know what it is about P-Momma, that's she's proved to be some kind of Internet maniac magnet. But I've assured her that there's no reason for the current nonsense she's been experiencing to cause her to quit blogging altogether, which she seemed resigned to in her last email to me. I've told her, hey, just go over to Wordpress, start up again there. But don't let assholes stifle your right to speech. Where would any of us be if we caved whenever people who can't stand anyone different from them tried to intimidate us into silence? Sure, I know, with P-Momma's health, and her concerns over the safety of her kids, it can be easy to find your energy wearing out after a while. But I support her, and I know her readers, a lot of whom also stop by here, support her too. There are a lot more decent folks out there on her side, than there are fools and madmen (and madwomen) with a desperate need to assuage the feelings of inadequacy their superstitions cannot compensate for by making life miserable for a mom and her little kids.

14 comments:

Thanks for the update. I've been wondering what's been going on, but I don't feel close enough to P-momma to inquire; I didn't want to be piling on as a question from a random reader when there's obviously something big going on with her. I hope she's ok.

Thank your for the update. I had been worried about her since I saw the blog get locked. Glad to know they are well but saddened that people are so absorbed in their silly beliefs that they go after others.

This whole situation has been so frustrating. Pmomma is one of my favorite bloggers out there, and I subscribe to close to 100 blogs . . . If she feels forced to quit blogging to protect her family, then I respect that decision, but it infuriates me that there are "Christians" out there who would harass a person to the point where she feels she has to be silent in order to protect her family.

Thanks for the update! I hope you'll pass along my well-wishes, too. One only needs to see the recent video of the McCain / Palin supporters to see what kind of whackos are out there and how dangerous they could be should they form a mob.

Dang shame. Why people find it necessary to harass people like Possummomma is beyond me, but I suspect it's b/c they're not secure in their own position. They need to spend more time where I do. Atheists doesn't need to be harassed, atheism just needs to be seen for the intellectual sham that it is. I condemn along with you any of these antics that are real (though it would be reasonable to doubt the severity of some of it, given what I've seen of Internet atheist ethical standards).

I condemn along with you any of these antics that are real (though it would be reasonable to doubt the severity of some of it, given what I've seen of Internet atheist ethical standards).

As a matter of fact, it is rather severe when a man leaves a notice on P-Momma's front door after her kids have gone to camp that says, "I know where they are, will you pray to God now?" I mean, you might not think that's severe, but we do, and so did P-Momma, and so did the police when they arrested the guy.

And the current situation has her so frightened that she's stopped blogging altogether. Again, to you, maybe not such a big deal. But to her, pretty severe, as it is to those who know what a good-hearted person she is.

Atheists doesn't need to be harassed, atheism just needs to be seen for the intellectual sham that it is.

Well, golly gee whillickers, Rho, I guess we all missed the part where you proved your God exists. Care to repeat it?

Given what we've seen of fundamentalist ethical standards -- both online and IRL -- is it at all surprising that you'd drop by in the middle of a discussion about a woman's personal misfortunes to cough up a phlegm-load of childish, self-flattering flamebait? No, not really.

Here, from Calladus's post, is an example of P-Momma's (and her readers') "atheist ethical standards."

Possummomma made a lot of friends through her writing. And we slowly found out that she was reluctant to talk about her disease and how she was forced to live. One of her online friends realized she was often trapped inside her bedroom cave and decided to do something about it. Berlzebub researched SLE and found out that it is UV radiation that aggravates the symptoms. He took the initiative to research UV blocking film for windows, and when he found out how much it cost he realized he couldn't afford to help - at least not by himself.

So he spread the word to P-momma's readers and they came through! But there was a small irony - Berlzebub collected too much money. It wasn't his fault, he knew that the price to professionally install film on all of P-momma's windows would be several thousand dollars. What he didn't realize was that 3M, the company that makes this film, would help with the effort. A gentleman from 3M also volunteered to install the film for free.

Finally the film was installed and the balance of the money collected was sent to P-momma as a gift. As one of the donators said,

Nobody donated money because P-Momma 'needed' it. Whether she needed the money was never in discussion. They all did it because they WANTED to help. How and how much is totally up to the people involved.

But Possummomma did us proud. She spent a small fraction of the money on UV blocking items that would be useful to her, and then sent the rest of the money on to a family that needed it more.

Whose "ethical standards" do you prefer, viewers at home? P-Momma's or Rhology's?

Hardly fair of you to equate me with that crazy who is threatening PMomma's family. You don't even know me. Just another example of an atheist playing fast and loose with professed 'ethical standards'. With no fixed point of reference, though, is it any wonder? At least I can point to this stalker freak and say "What he is doing is absolutely wrong, no question."

Hardly fair of you to equate me with that crazy who is threatening PMomma's family.

Which of course was not what I was doing. I objected to your offensive inability to resist posting self-flattering, atheist-bashing trollage here, and offered up an example of P-Momma's character as a lesson in not making snide remarks about people's ethical standards without knowing what they are, or without being able to demonstrate that yours are appreciably different, let alone demonstrably better. It is not a lesson I expect you to get, but in future, before whining "You don't even know me," consider that's the situation you're in when pronouncing yourself superior to those who don't share your invisible-sky-daddy-of-choice worship.

At least I can point to this stalker freak and say "What he is doing is absolutely wrong, no question."

As do all the rest of us, Rho. And yes, we know from dozens of prior futile comment threads here that you're unequipped to comprehend secular ethics. So no, we're not going to get dragged in to that nonsense again here.

Do not comment on this thread again, Rhology. This one's about Possummomma, not your ego. Anything more from you will be automatically deleted.

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PLEASE NOTE: The Atheist Experience has moved to a new location, and this blog is now closed to comments. To participate in future discussions, please visit http://www.freethoughtblogs.com/axp.The Atheist Experience is a weekly live call-in television show sponsored by the Atheist Community of Austin. This independently-run blog (not sponsored by the ACA) features contributions from current and former hosts and co-hosts of the show.